CTLs are targeted to kill β cells in patients with type 1 diabetes through recognition of a glucose-regulated preproinsulin epitope
J. Clin. Invest. 118:10 doi:10.1172/JCI35449 [Go to this article.]

Figure 3
Circulating effector CD8⁺ T cells that recognize PPI SP epitopes are present in patients with type 1 diabetes.

IFN-γ ELISPOT PBMC reactivity to PPI_15–24, either PPI_17–24 or PPI_15–24, or both peptides was significantly more frequent in patients with type 1 diabetes and HLA-A*0201 (black bars) than in HLA-matched nondiabetic control subjects (white bars). Responses to PPI_17–24 were not significantly different in this series (P = 0.08), but see Supplemental Table 1 showing a similar analysis of an extended, independent series of cases in which the prevalence of responses to PPI_17–24 is significantly higher in patients with type 1 diabetes than in control subjects (P = 0.004). In contrast, the prevalence of responses to the mixture of viral peptides was similar in the 2 groups (see also Supplemental Table 1).